FrameMaker 10 not printing PDFs

[az_writer22]

When I try to print to PDF on FrameMaker,  I get the "printing book" dialog box but nothing happens....the PDF is not created and no errors are reported. If I choose to print to poscript, open Acrobat Distiller, the PDF is generated there.

I recently upgraded to FrameMaker and Acrobat 10. I didn't have any issues on 9. I'm currently running both versions of FrameMaker on my PC for now.

Is this a Windows 7 issue? My co-worker has both versions of FrameMaker running with acrobat 10, but on an  XP system and everything seems fine on his end.

Thanks,

[Bob_Niland]

I've never used a comma in a file name or path in my life; I'm curious as to why anyone would do so.

Multiple versions and archival copies of the same document.

We routinely generate two versions of the .ps output:

12345M_web.ps

and

12345M_print.ps (visible navs in doc suppressed)

Because the platform is Solaris, we'd gotten into the habit of using:

12345M,web.ps

We'll eventually have to migrate to Windows, and unless the comma bug is fixed by then, we'll have problems doing this.

When we release a new version of a manual, we make a second copy with a time-stamped filename, for archival purposes.

"12345M.pdf" is always the current version (of the web version).

The document source directory might also contain:

12345M_1999-03-17_jfk.pdf

12345M_2002-04-03_gwb.pdf

12345M_2010-07-23_ati.pdf

where "ati" are the Author's Three Initials.

Memorializing the vintage in the file name matters because we have multiple versions of the same document, and the directory timestamp isn't necessarily preserved in network copying. The author info is for knowing who to blame.

There are well-known characters [e.g. /\:;] that need to be avoided because they are legal on some OS'es and not on others. But I'd expect commas to work [now] because they apparently haven't been "illegal" since NetWare on DOS.

_______

Frame does work fine with spaces in filepath. Personally, I consider spaces in filepath to be extremely unwise.

[az_writer22]

Error7103 , no commas, just underscores.

[az_writer22]

I appreciate all the replies. I guess I'll have to "Save as PDF" or print to "PS" for now, and keep an eye out for the fix.

Thanks!

[Maike_Roder]

Hi there,

it is possible to create PDFs with FrameMaker 10 and an Extended Script named PDF Tools. Actually this script allows you to combine several FM Documents with different paper sizes and/or formats (landscape or portrait) and the printing in PDF works perfectly fine.

System requirements are Win XP, Win7 (x86) and Win7 (x64).

- Maike

[Guest]

With 10.0.1 update, this issue has been resolved for all 64-bit versions (Vista / Win7 / XP).

Regards,

Rajat Bansal

[az_writer22]

IT'S WORKING! I just installed update 10.0.1, and I was able to print a PDF with no issues.

Thanks again!

az_writer22

[H_Label_D]

I am using FM 10, experiencing problems in creating a pdf of a  book. I use Adobe PDF as my print driver. The error said that a font,

HelveticaNeueCond, was not available, and could not be embedded. I had never heard of this font as being in my book, but I downloaded it and installed it on my C drive in my WINDOWS/Fonts folder. Still got the same error!

Also a pdf was made up to a certain page and then it failed. When I tried pdf ing that failed page, it worked. Then I tried to pdf the pages in between and it failed in a different spot.

This failure makes no sense.

I need help!

[Artwitch01]

I too have been having issues with Frame 10 and getting an internal error when I tried to create a PDF using the “print” method. After trying to resolve, the thing that appeared to work was removing some of the multitude of fonts in my fonts directory. We use a font named Knowledge Light and that was the font that wasn’t embedding and one of the last ones loaded. Using XP and I believe there may be a font limitation. Helvetica Neue Cond may be a font used in the ini substitution table (Found in your FrameMaker folder as Maker.ini). Hope this helps. Linda Hume

[Arnis Gubins]

It's not clear if you're creating the PDF by using FM's SaveAsPDF or printing directly to the AdobePDF printer instance or creating a postscript file and then manually distilling. Also, is this error being reported by Distiller or FM?

Have you patched your version to FM10.0.2? This addressed many PDF issues especially if you are using the SaveAsPDF route with the default setting for "Convert CMYK Colors to RGB" (i.e. unchecked).

[Artwitch01]

I’m no long having the problem since I cleaned out my fonts list. Another lady was the one having a problem. I was responding to her query.

[Guest]

I have exactly the same problem. "Save As" works for individual files, but large books with multiple files take FOREVER. With Frame10 on WinXP a 100 page book took less than a minute, now I can't make a PDF at all. If I print to the PDF printer nothing happens. If I print to PS it also takes forever.

Adobe has to fix this!!!!!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@Clint Owen - first off, are you all patched up in FM10? What o/s are you using? If WinXP, have you applied the MS Hotfix? The fact that when you print to the Adobe PDF printer instance, nothing happens, leads me to believe that something may have damaged your install of Acrobat. Are you running the standalone version of FM with the "headless" Distiller or do you have FM and Acrobat as part of the TCS or separate point products?

[Guest]

Thanks for the feedback. I am on Windows 7, 64 bit, with FrameMaker 10 and Acrobat X Standard. I just installed the FM 10.0.2 patch. Now when I start to print a book, it seems to start normally, but takes an interminable amount of time, on the order of 5 minutes per page, even for simple text pages. This is a major hindrance to my work. Thanks

Clint Owen | Sr. Technical Writer | Crane Aerospace & Electronics | +1 425 743 8674 | Fax: +1 425 743 8113

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Something's still wrong - it shouldn't be taking that long. Remind me - are you printing to the Adobe PDF "printer" or Save As PDF?

[Guest]

I have tried it both ways and every combination that I can think of. I am printing the book, to end up with one PDF that combines all of the component files, as I have been doing for 11 years. For a small book with two files “Save As” seems to work OK, but for a large manual with 20 files it just crawls, whether I “Print To” or “Save As”.

Clint Owen | Sr. Technical Writer | Crane Aerospace & Electronics | +1 425 743 8674 | Fax: +1 425 743 8113

[Artwitch01]

Believe it or not, I had the same problem with Frame10 and couldn’t create PDFs. The answer for me was to remove some of the fonts I didn’t use from the system Fonts directory. I remembered a similar problem with Frame 6 or 7 (I have slept since then) years ago, and thought, “What the heck, I’ll try it!” It worked. Linda Hume

[Guest]

Problem solved! The manual that I was working on had a small PDF inserted as a graphic on the master pages for the logo. When we replaced the logo with a TIF, everything now works fine! We have been using the same templates for at least 7 years with no problem, but some combination of the new software and hardware tripped us up. Thanks for everyone’s help.

Clint Owen | Sr. Technical Writer | Crane Aerospace & Electronics | +1 425 743 8674 | Fax: +1 425 743 8113

[Bob_Niland]

> ... had a small PDF inserted as a graphic on the master pages for the logo.

Hmmm. So Frame still has problem with PDF import at FM10?

(FM7 is highly unstable for that.)

> When we replaced the logo with a TIF, ...

If the logo was vector PDF, you might want to re-save the PDF as EPS, and import that (and preserve the vectorness of it). If you don't have Illustrator, I think Acrobat Pro can save a PDF as EPS.

[welshviking]

I have just upgraded to TCS 3.5 from TCS 2 on a Win 7 64 machine. Since I also have CS6 running, I deselected the Acrobat Pro installation (this is already installed).

I applied the 10.0.2 update and restarted the machine. But I can't get pdfs from Framemaker. I have tried Save As..., Save As PDF, Print to file (using Adobe PDF as printer) but still no result.

The Distiller appears briefly in the Windows taskbar but Frame doesn't seem to be communicating properly. Any ideas as to the solution?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Can you produce PDFs in any other apps or has your Acrobat install gone south? You may have to uninstall it & reinstall it again.

[Artwitch01]

I also had a similar problem when I installed Frame 10 as part of the TCS. After installing and reinstalling several times, I removed some of the fonts loaded on my system that I did not use. I have been able to create PDFs ever since using the Print | Print Adobe PDF command. Linda

[mandrill22]

Hi,

I am having a somewhat similar issue with Distiller crashing. I don't even have to attempt to create a PDF from FM 11; all I have to do is start acrodist.exe and it crashes upon startup. I recently installed TCS 4.0 (an update to 3.0) on a 32-bit Win 7 Pro system and did not replace my already installed version of Acrobat X Pro application (which was working fine prior to installing 4.0). Since Acrobat had not been upgraded, I chose to not install it.

Do you remember which fonts you deleted to get distiller to work?

[Guest]

My issue was not with fonts. We installed the latest patch and replaced a problem PDF graphic and have had no trouble since.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I'd make sure you've upgraded to the latest FM11 patch level (382 I think) & if that doesn't fix it, uninstall your Pro X, reinstall it again with the TCS 4 installer and then get the XI upgrade (see the TCS announcements for the link).

[Artwitch01]

I just cut several font families that I don’t use from my fonts directory. It seemed to work.